


candor

by smallredboy



Category: House M.D.
Genre: Co-workers, Coming Out, Divorce, Episode: s06e17 Lockdown, Established Greg House/James Wilson, F/F, Friends With Benefits, M/M, Minor Allison Cameron/Robert Chase, Recreational Drug Use, Truth or Dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:01:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23563468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallredboy/pseuds/smallredboy
Summary: During the lockdown, two very different conversations go on about Foreman's relationship with Chase, and Wilson's relationship with House.
Relationships: Eric Foreman & Chris Taub, Greg House/James Wilson, Lisa Cuddy/Remy "Thirteen" Hadley, Remy "Thirteen" Hadley & James Wilson, Robert Chase/Eric Foreman
Comments: 13
Kudos: 103





	1. Foreman and Taub

**Author's Note:**

  * For [firstlovelatespring](https://archiveofourown.org/users/firstlovelatespring/gifts).



> for my dear friend sarah, who paid me $20 for this.
> 
> enjoy!

Foreman has the tendency to overshare when stoned. And now that he got stoned with Taub, it's very much more of a negative than a positive.

"Where do you think Chase is?" Foreman asks.

Taub laughs. "I dunno. I swear I saw Cameron on the hallway right before lockdown started, though."

He immediately straightens up, as much as his head protests, the ceiling moving even more so at his rash movement. He curses. "Shit," he mumbles, squeezing his eyes shut to try and find some balance, gripping at the floor. "Probably came to sign the divorce papers. Chase hasn't signed them."

"Does Chase speak often about his failed marriage to you?" Taub asks.

His face heats up. It's usually awkward pillow talk, and it's not like he can tell Taub that.

" _You_ speak often about your failing marriage to us, so," he retorts.

"Yeah, but _Chase_? He punched House in the face just to show everyone that he didn't want to talk about it. How d'you know anything about it?"

(Foreman wishes he could make some joke about how he came in and ruined their marriage — although it wouldn't be as stereotypical as it would've been if he had slept with Cameron. But still, white marriages aside, their relationship had always been open. Cameron knew they were sleeping together, and didn't have a problem with it. More than once she walked in on them still in bed; Foreman had spluttered and apologized, as if they had a _don't ask, don't tell_ agreement. They didn't— as far as he knew, Chase talked animatedly about sleeping with his ex-coworker with his wife.

But he's still sleeping with Chase. He's closer to him, now, with being his secret keeper before shit went down south. They talk and they mention the divorce and Chase goes stiff like a plank, mumbling something about how he still doesn't want to look through the papers. That it still doesn't feel real.)

Foreman manages a shrug. "We're friends. He talks to me about stuff."

"I didn't know you had friends," he jokes.

"I have friends," he says.

(He does not, in fact, have friends.)

He snorts. "Sure. How many years did it take for you to like, _be friends_ with Chase?"

He makes a noise of protest. They've never been _friends_ without sleeping together in between them, the coworkers with benefits dynamic clear through every one of their interactions. But they're also friends; they watch movies together and joke and jape, they talk about their respective families while downing shots of vodka, Chase displeased at the little glass in his hand.

They had started sleeping together on a drunken night a year and a half into working under House. He had gotten progressively drunker and started flirting, although he'd say Chase was more sober than him. Considering the first time he and Cameron slept together it was during even worse circumstances, he'd joke that he's got an _awful_ track record. But he knows Chase enough to know he wouldn't enjoy that joke.

"Uh, like three years?"

"Because he didn't open up or because you didn't open up?"

"Stop asking loaded questions," Foreman replies, settling back down on the floor.

"I'm all for loaded questions." He sighs. "Is it awkward?"

"With Thirteen?" He pauses. "I don't want to talk about Thirteen."

"Let's keep talking about Chase, then." Before Foreman can open his mouth, he goes— "Look! I just, again, didn't know you actually had friends. You're an insufferable ass."

Chase had expressed that same sentiment while in bed with him. He bites the inside of his cheek. How much can he hint at before Taub realizes that he and Chase are in a non-relationship?

"Thank you," he replies dryly. "I just don't like opening up to people." He pauses and groans. "Why did I say that?"

"You sound like you're talking to a therapist."

"You'd make a _really_ shitty therapist," Foreman shoots back. "But me and Chase — we're good friends."

"Oh yeah?" There's a pause, and Taub worries his lip between his teeth. "What did Cameron see in him? I mean, I don't know, is it just the accent? I wouldn't know, I'm not into men."

"He's pretty," he replies. He regrets the words as soon as he says them, but Taub seems none the wiser. "Well, he was before he cut his hair out of angst, anyway."

Taub laughs. 

"I mean, House finds him pretty," he adds as an afterthought.

"House is straight."

Foreman stares at him.

"House is _not_ straight."

"What makes you think that?"

"Have you ever looked at him and Wilson?"

"Yeah," Taub replies. "They're friends and Wilson puts up with him out of the kindness of his heart. He's an _oncologist_. Messiah complex and whatnot."

"No…. no, you're wrong."

He shrugs. "I'm not too into questioning our boss' sexuality."

He's waiting for him to drop a _I'd like to question yours, though_ or something, but he just looks at him, waiting for him to change the topic. So he goes back to Chase.

"Women do find the accent really attractive," he says. White women, mostly. He couldn't stand Chase's accent when they first met, but he's grown used to it. "I've never really gotten it."

"I mean, I enjoy an accent," Taub says. "But, again, you know. He's a dude. And I'm straight."

"Well, yeah," Foreman says awkwardly, not wanting to continue and lie, say he's straight. He can still feel Chase's kisses against his windpipe from a few nights ago. "You certainly are."

The door shuffles open, one of the guards peeking his head into the file room.

"Anyone here? Lockdown's over."

Foreman sighs out in relief. His head has stopped hurting, and he's successfully avoided Taub finding out about his and Chase's non-relationship.

"We don't have to tell anyone what we —"

"Mm-mm."

He drops his file on the counter, and then turns to Taub. This is an awful idea, but he can't stop himself. "You're straight. But I'm not."

"Oh—" Taub exclaims. "Oh. I had no idea." He pauses for a second, and his brows furrow. "Did you give me the painkillers so we'd —"

Foreman nearly doubles over with the laughter that comes out of him. "No! Good lord, I wouldn't sleep with you!"

"Hey," Taub exclaims, gently punching his forearm. "That hurts."

"You'll live," he retorts.

He's come out to him, but he's none the wiser about the other part. The part where he and Chase have been hooking up for four years, where he and Chase clearly should get over themselves already, but Chase just went through a divorce and they're very clearly both awful at relationships. Taub doesn't know that part.

 _Good_.


	2. Wilson and Thirteen

"Have you ever had a foursome?" Wilson asks, eyes wide.

"No," Thirteen cuts him off. "And you asked me two questions, so now I get to ask you two." She smiles at him, tilting her head. "You can see why I was the queen."

Wilson lets out a little groan, although he's impressed by Thirteen's abilities at this juvenile game. Perhaps it's because she's younger than him, or something. He sighs and fixes his hair.

"Well, ask," he says.

"Are you gay?" she asks.

Wilson blushes and stammers at that. Fuck. Of course, it's not the same fear that came from being asked that in college, as Thirteen is also bisexual, but it's still the same old fight or flight feeling playing at him. "No," he says. "I'm bisexual."

"Ah." Thirteen chuckles. "Welcome to the club."

"Second question?" Wilson presses on, his face a faint shade of red.

"Are you dating House?"

Well, now _that_ is a whole different question. He looks away, which immediately betrays his answer being a solid _yes_ , but he tries to remain composed. There's always been speculation around him and House, following them like a leech, but it took for the funeral of House's father for them to _finally_ get together. House had pressed and mocked about how he was just dating him to cope with Amber's death, but he had shut him up with a firm kiss and an admission of having fantasized about him during his wedding night with Julie.

"Yeah," he says, softly, like the whole world is going to hear him if he says it any louder.

(He's not sure why they're still closeted, still playing secrets. House is flagrantly bisexual to anyone with eyes; he's been making jabs at Chase being pretty since he hired him, back when he was a doe-eyed twink— he's more straight-seeming, or so he'd like to think, with three divorces and whatnot. Besides, Cuddy is a lesbian, Chase is probably bi too, and Foreman is bi too, as House found out after breaching the man's privacy for the hundredth time. There would be no issues in the workplace with them coming out.

He's sure House will only come out officially when they get married. He's as dramatic as it gets.)

"Called it," she says. "It's not like I'm going to out you. Although I doubt anyone would have an issue with it."

"Except maybe, like, Taub," he offers.

"Maybe," she says, shrugging. "Although I'm sure Cuddy would get him out of the hospital if she even heard a whisper of him being homophobic."

Wilson laughs. "Yeah." He pauses for a second, licking his lips before worrying them between his teeth. "When did you start, like, suspecting it?"

"I always knew House was bi," she says. "Like, I don't know, him making jabs at Chase for being pretty was kind of obvious, in my opinion. And you two have always acted like an old married couple."

"We're not married," he intercepts.

"Yet," she adds.

He blushes harder, and he fiddles with his hands. With the empty ring finger in his left hand.

"Yet." He draws out a sigh. "I— uh. I'm not used to like, talking about it, with anyone."

"I get it," she says. "When did you two start dating?"

"A few months after Amber's death," he says. "I drove him to his dad's funeral."

Thirteen stares at him. "Oh, so that's why you came back," she says, slowly, like it's dawning on her.

He laughs. "Yeah. He joked that if I was coming back because of the shine of his neediness, that he'd be okay with that. And I was."

"Did you kiss him at his father's funeral? That's like, gay culture."

He snorts. "After it. We were arguing and he was saying for me to admit I missed him and I kind of, just snapped—"

"Oh my _God_ , Wilson," she says, attempting to sound scandalized.

"I also kind of made Cuddy drug him so I could get him in my car and to the funeral."

"Romance isn't dead," Thirteen drawls out.

He hums. "Romance isn't dead, indeed." He pauses. "Would you like to, uh, continue the game?"

"Well, I kinda feel bad about lying in all my turns now, so sure."

"What—"

"Yeah, sorry," she says. "Anyway. Truth. I'll be honest this time, I promise."

Wilson raises a brow at her, but doesn't press. "Are you interested in anyone for a relationship?"

Thirteen opens her mouth, closes it, then opens it again. Her face flushes pink and she struggles for a few seconds. "Yeah," she says.

"Oh, look, the slutty bisexual has feelings," he jokes lightly.

She pouts. "Shut up, Wilson. I'm not letting you ask who, because that means two more questions against you, so I'm just going to tell you outright." She draws in a breath. "It's Cuddy."

He exclaims a little at that. "She's never going to—"

"Yeah, boss-employee power dynamics, she _loves_ rules, I know. I'm still gonna ask her out one day. And I'm going to succeed."

"Good luck with that," he says, leaning his face into his palm.

Lockdown isn't that bad, in the grand scheme of things. He finally can tell someone about his relationship with House.

"How insufferable is he?" Thirteen asks, without the prompting of the game of truth or dare.

"What?"

"House. Is he any different with you?"

"I didn't say truth," Wilson protests.

She smiles. "I know you're still going to answer. You're desperate to talk about it with someone."

He huffs. He guesses she's right.

"He's an insufferable ass," he says. "A self-important jerk."

"But he's _your_ jerk," she teases lightly.

"Yeah," he says, without a second's worth of doubt. "He's my jerk."

(He can't wait to talk to House about pouring out about their relationship during the lockdown. He's probably going to push him off the bed for it; he's not a fan of sentimentality.)

**Author's Note:**

> check out my [tumblr](https://smallredb0y.tumblr.com)!


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